30MELBOURNE. – Australian Open chief Craig Tiley is confident Rafa Nadal will be at Melbourne Park for next month’s Grand Slam despite testing positive for COVID-19, but he is still uncertain whether Novak Djokovic will be playing.
Nadal caught the novel coronavirus while playing in an exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi last week and said he would decide on his future tournaments depending on his “evolution” over the weeks ahead.
“I’m confident Rafa will be here,” tournament organizer Tiley said of the 20-time Grand Slam champion at Melbourne Park on Wednesday.
“Players that are testing positive now will complete a period of time until they are no longer infectious, and they will be fine. If you are going to test positive and you want to play the Australian Open, your timing would be now.”
Tiley reiterated that all players and staff at the Australian Open would be vaccinated or have a medical exemption granted by an independent panel of experts. read more
Those requirements have prevented Djokovic, who has declined to disclose whether he is vaccinated, citing privacy, from confirming whether he will bid for a 21st Grand Slam title and a 10th Australian Open crown next month.
